The San Francisco calamity by earthquake and fire eBook

“Picking up some wreckage which contained bedding
and a tool chest, I, with the help of five others
who had joined me on the wreck, constructed a rude
raft, on which we placed the captain. Then, seeing
an upturned boat, I asked one of the five, a native
of Martinique, to swim and fetch it. Instead
of returning to us, he picked up two of his countrymen
and went away in the direction of Fort de France.
Seeing the Roddam, which arrived in port shortly after
we anchored, making for the Roraima, I said good-bye
to the captain and swam back to the Roraima.

“The Roddam, however, burst into flames and
put to sea. I reached the Roraima at about half-past
2, and was afterwards taken off by a boat from the
French warship Suchet. Twenty-four others with
myself were taken on to Fort de France. Three
of these died before reaching port. A number
of others have since died.”

Samuel Thomas, the gangway man, whose life was saved
by the forethought of Taylor, says that the scene
on the burning ship was awful. The groans and
cries of the dying, for whom nothing could be done,
were horrible. He describes a woman as being
burned to death with a living babe in her arms.
He says that it seemed as if the whole world was afire.

CONSUL AYME’S STATEMENT

The inflammable material in the forepart of the ship
that would have ignited that part of the vessel was
thrown overboard by him and the other two uninjured
men. The Grappler, the telegraph company’s
ship, was seen opposite the Usine Guerin, and disappeared
as if blown up by a submarine explosion. The
captain’s body was subsequently found by a boat
from the Suchet.

Consul Ayme, of Guadeloupe, who, as already stated,
had hastened to Fort de France on hearing of the terrible
event, tells the story of the disaster in the following
words:

“Thursday morning the inhabitants of the city
awoke to find heavy clouds shrouding Mont Pelee crater.
All day Wednesday horrid detonations had been heard.
These were echoed from St. Thomas on the north to Barbados
on the south. The cannonading ceased on Wednesday
night, and fine ashes fell like rain on St. Pierre.
The inhabitants were alarmed, but Governor Mouttet,
who had arrived at St. Pierre the evening before, did
everything possible to allay the panic.

“The British steamer Roraima reached St. Pierre
on Thursday with ten passengers, among whom were Mrs.
Stokes and her three children, and Mrs. H. J. Ince.
They were watching the rain of ashes, when, with a
frightful roar and terrific electric discharges, a
cyclone of fire, mud and steam swept down from the
crater over the town and bay, sweeping all before it
and destroying the fleet of vessels at anchor off the
shore. There the accounts of the catastrophe
so far obtainable cease. Thirty thousand corpses
are strewn about, buried in the ruins of St. Pierre,
or else floating, gnawed by sharks, in the surrounding
seas. Twenty-eight charred, half-dead human beings
were brought here. Sixteen of them are already
dead, and only four of the whole number are expected
to recover.”